Mother put 10 yr.old autistic son in mental hospital without knowledge of Father
Please help! My son and his ex wife agreed upon the custody isssues of their two children themselves. No lawyers, no court, no papers. Verbal between the two of them. It was decided the daughter which is the oldest would live with her Father (my son) and that the son who is autistic would reside with the mother (my ex daughter in law). They both also agreed not to pursue child support but to support whichever child was staying with him/her at the time and agree to anything else that the other may need help with. Both have since remarried and had a child each with the new spouses. Things began to change for the worse but my son would not take my advice as well as the advice of other family members and friends that it may be time to do all this legally through the courts. My ex daughter in law is known for being manipulative as well as to quite a handful of untruths but to no avail he kept trying to trust her judgement as a Mother and wanting to believe that she would do what is in the best interest of the children. My son called his ex wife two days ago to ask for some time with their son for this upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Holidays and a few times throughout summer vacation is the only time the family gets with my grandson. She keeps him from us right much and never includes us in what's going on with him mentally or physically. Back to where I left off... my son called about the upcoming holiday to find out that his ex had taken their son out of school and placed him in a state mental hospital about a week ago. My son is devastated as well as the rest of us. What the hell has she done? And how? Did she not need the permission of this child's Father to go about this? What can my son do to help his son? The only thing he knows is that his 10 yr. old son is in a state mental hospital and he has been told that not even him nor her can visit or see him at this time and that after his stay is over at this particular hospital he will be sent to a mental hospital in Tennesee. This is a child who is mildly autstic who has been attending public school (in a special class) who is loving and caring and loves fishing and hanging out with his father, brother, sisters, cousins and the rest of his family. My son was told that his sons specialist advised that he be put in the mental hospital for breaking a window at school. (this is the first anyone has heard about a window). He's never been away from his Mother and Father at the same time, much less somewhere as harsh as a mental hospital where no one in his family can see if he is okay. You know he is terrified and lonely and here at the holidays. My son has tried over and over to contact his ex but she will not answer the phone or return any messages. Please someone give us some legal advice as to how we can help this child and bring him home. Is it illegal what she has done? What is my sons rights as a father to this child? Please!! HELP!!